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Benjamin and Janneane Blevins were in one of the most fashionable cities in the world when they got the bad news about their hometown of Indianapolis.

We — yes, brace yourself — have been ranked the 10th “worst-dressed” city in the United States. Thanks to the surprising per-capita dearth of high-end clothing, jewelry and shoe stores, we’ve been banished to the ranks of cities such as Wichita, Kan.; El Paso, Texas; and Albuquerque, N.M.

It’s a travesty that Hoosiers have been trying to correct and document all weekend, choosing skinny jeans over baggy ones, and breaking out the color wheel to find the right scarf to match that pair of capris.

OK, I jest.

But the truth is, fashion is becoming a serious business in Indianapolis — especially for a growing number of young professionals such as the Blevins. The couple, heavy into business, technology and urban issues, helped found the local fashion magazine Pattern. They’re currently in Paris — the one in France, not Illinois — on a fashion-fact-finding mission.

“When I first heard about the list, I was pretty ambivalent,” Benjamin wrote. “We’re not known for anything regarding fashion — and that includes being known for so-called bad fashion.”

But he added of the blog post on Movoto: “I thought it inaccurately described a somewhat accurate truth.”

Everyone knows that Indianapolis is not the kind of place where most people are going to drop $600 on a pair of designer shoes or a dress, or even opt for a tailored suit as opposed to one off the rack. Few Hoosiers will even buy from local designers instead of chain retailers.

For that reason alone, we’ll never be a Paris or a New York, of course, with the market demand for pricey boutiques on every corner.

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But that doesn’t mean we don’t have people who dress well. People who are fashionable.

Jamie Yan, a 28-year-old sales manager for a manufacturing company has made it her mission in life to find those Hoosiers and photograph them. Last month, she started Street Style Indy — a blog modeled after similar blogs for Chicago and New York.

“I thought that ‘Wow, if I can get to the level of Chicago Street Style blog, then people would see that Indianapolis is a fashion destination,’ ” Jamie said.

Most of her photos of fashionable folks are (not surprisingly) young, Downtown dwellers. They’re trendy — not New York or Paris trendy, but Midwestern trendy. Jamie calls Indianapolis’ style the “crossroads of fashion.” People borrow pieces from what’s popular in Los Angeles or Portland or Chicago and blend them together into something unique.

“We have a style,” she said. “It might not be runway style straight out of the pages of Vogue, but it’s a style.”

(I keep trying to tell people this about my impressive collection of hoodies, Chuck Taylor sneakers, superhero T-shirts and knit caps. It might be a style fit for an 8-year-old, but it’s a style!)

Another thing Indianapolis has is a burgeoning fashion industry.

In addition to Pattern’s monthly meetups, magazine and Fashion’s Night Out, Benjamin points to grassroots efforts such as Midwest Fashion Week, which started in 2006 and is now a national event. There’s also a forthcoming co-working space from Dreamapolis that will house fashion-related businesses.

All of this isn’t to say that we don’t have plenty of people in Indianapolis who dress like slobs. I’ve had more conversations than I can count with friends about how people in Indy think it’s OK to go to the mall in sweats or to nightclubs in ill-fitting, dirty T-shirts. We’re not a city that particularly prizes dressing up. You can always count on at least one person to wear jeans to a formal dinner party.

That may never change. But fashion still can have a place in Indianapolis.

“We aren’t interested in getting a Gucci next to every Starbucks or a Versace inside each Downtown hotel lobby,” Benjamin said. “... Pattern wants local designers to be able to sustain their businesses and build viable, long-term brands. We don’t want everyone to suddenly start sporting Luxe fur coats or (name your exotic animal) -skinned boots. We believe that fashion can help Indianapolis in a way that benefits the city aesthetically and economically. And we believe that the combination of those two is a potent force.”